A Bad Boy for Christmas

by Jessica Lemmon

  “Hey, Gert.” He ruffled the dog’s fur. Another soul in the Cove who’d found an unlikely forever home. He hoped the pooch knew how good she had it.

  Donovan’s fiancée, cell phone in hand, gestured to him. “Mrs. Anderson called and asked when you’d be over to set up for the Harvest Fest.”

  “On the docket for this week.” Like he’d told Mrs. Anderson already. Twice. Persistent little old lady, he was learning. And tough. He’d attempted to backtalk her once and suffered her wrath. She was not a librarian to be trifled with.

  “Sorry, she can be kind of a pain.” Sofie wrinkled her nose.

  “Kind of?” he asked with a smile.

  She chuckled. Sofe was a catch and a half. Bright, adorable, and would do anything for anyone. She was exactly what Donny needed at a time when no one—not even Connor—had been able to reach him. She brought Donovan back to life, and then together, they brought the mansion back to life. He never would have thought Donovan Pate could have been domesticated, but it was nice to see his buddy fall into line.

  Lucky bastard.

  Connor pushed to standing and patted Gertie one last time. The dog had showed up here skin and bones last spring and had put on plenty of weight. Her coat was glossy, her pale blue eyes bright. “Good girl. Yes you are.”

  Gertie wagged her tail and leaned against his leg, smiling up at him.

  “Tell you what,” he said to Sofie. “I have a few hours to kill this afternoon, why don’t I stop by there and make sure Mrs. Anderson knows I’m on top of things.” It was an inconvenience, but not a big one. Like he’d do anything for his sisters, he’d do anything for his friends, too. And now that included Sofia Martin.

  “Really?” She looked relieved with her hand pressed flat against her collarbone.

  “Really.” He gathered his tool belt and shears and ambled toward the driveway where he’d parked.

  Before he made it to his work truck, she called out, “Faith said you had a date tonight.”

  Did she, now? He turned and Sofie raised an eyebrow. He wasn’t the only one fishing for information this afternoon. Yeah, he wasn’t giving the brunette anything.

  Before he climbed into his truck, he waved. “See you tomorrow.”

  “Tease!” she shouted as he reversed out of his parking space.

  Yeah, let that get back to Faith. He didn’t mind stoking her jealousy. Not at all. Maybe she’d be filled with jealousy over his “date” and openly pursue him. All he needed was an opening, and then he’d charge in like a bull.

  In town, he passed Cup of Jo’s, Fern’s Floral Shoppe, and the now vacant storefront that used to be Sofie’s event-planning company. His company, C. Alan Landscaping, had no home base. Not technically. Right now billing was done on his phone and in his head, and there was a box of receipts overflowing on his kitchen table. Probably he should do something about that.

  When he’d first started taking the occasional odd job he hadn’t needed a fancy accounting system. But with all the referrals he was getting from Make It an Event, business had picked up and he found himself dogged by paperwork. Organization was not his forte.

  The only upside to the influx of paperwork was that every referral was an excuse to thank Faith for sending a new client his way. Which he did daily and twice on Sunday. He smiled to himself remembering the way she looked today. Trussed in a tight dress and high-heeled shoes, and decorated with pink glitter. Yeah, being around a creature as gorgeous as Faith Garrett was not a hardship.

  He pulled around the back of the library and shut off the engine. Mrs. Anderson shuffled in his direction wearing orthopedic shoes, her wrinkled mouth pulled taut, determination in her deep-set eyes.

  Thoughts of Faith and his libido vanished into the atmosphere.

  CHAPTER 2

  Thunder rumbled long and low in the distance, briefly causing the lights in Faith’s new apartment to flicker. She paused, take-out container in one hand, serving tongs in the other, wondering if she should light some candles. Even if she and her friends had to eat and drink by candlelight, by golly they were having Girls’ Night Out in her kitchen.

  She opened the lid and plated what was inside: sweet and spicy chicken drummettes from Salty Dog. The local bar had great food, and the chicken wings were among her favorite menu items. Procuring another square serving platter, she plated the evening’s crowning glory next.

  Three shiny, glistening, glorious Devil Dogs. Tall, rectangular, chocolate cream–filled cakes, dipped in dark chocolate, each topped with whipped cream and a cherry. She would like to say she’d had the wherewithal not to scarf one down before her friends got here, but the truth was she’d ordered four of the cakes from Sugar Hi. The fourth one was gone before she got home. It was perfection.

  She had no regrets.

  A roll of thunder rattled her picture frames, but this time the lights remained steady. She wasn’t quite used to the sounds in her new place yet, and oh, how it made her miss her old apartment. Being here was like having to break in new jeans. Uncomfortable. Foreign. And given this place had two hundred less square feet, a little tight.

  Her old apartment was at ground level rather than the top of a long flight of stairs, with a big, beautiful oak tree and a picture window looking out over the golf course. After giving up the place to move in with Michael, there hadn’t been any hope of getting it back. Whoever had moved in was smart enough to stay rather than give up the prime real estate.

  Which left her renting in Shady Pines. She was able to score a second floor with a balcony, and she’d admit it was nice not to have anyone stomping around above her this time around. The new building wasn’t as fancy as Oak Grove, but it was private. Freestanding, the six-unit building had small homes on either side, but not too close, with a patch of pines on one side and a parking lot with a basketball court on the other.

  She was lucky to find it, really. Given the touristy draw of this town, most places were rented out to vacationers looking for some lakeside R&R. When one didn’t own a house, one was left to rent whatever was available.

  Shady Pines was available.

  Her immediate neighbors living in the building were elderly and friendly, aside from the guy downstairs who worked nights and rarely spoke to anyone. Faith didn’t mind having older folks nearby. It wasn’t like her friends were going to get “wild” or anything.

  She arranged a number of bottles on the counter, frowning at the selection. She couldn’t get the one wine she wanted most. Layer Cake Primitivo was hard to find, and her favorite wine to drink in the fall. Packed with flavors like cherry, espresso, and white pepper, the red was great by itself, but with chocolate, it was to die for. In her former profession as the wine and beer girl for Abundance Market, she had special-ordered and kept in stock anything she liked. Primitivo was always stocked if the shelves had space for it. And if not, she kept a stash for herself in the back of her cabinet.

  Recently, she’d run out.

  She let herself run out, vowing to face her demons, specifically Michael and Cookie, who now also worked at Abundance. But in the end, Faith had chickened out (again), popping a Uey in the parking lot and driving to the small, under-stocked wine shop on Belinda Avenue. It was quaint, and she loved the staff, but alas, no Primitivo. The woman behind the counter politely offered to order it for her, but Faith had turned her down.

  She’d compromised so much—she’d lost so much—the wine had become a sticking point. The next bottle of Layer Cake would be purchased from Abundance Market, so help her God. She couldn’t avoid the market forever. She could go. She had to go. And soon, when she found her courage, she would go.

  You realize how ridiculous you’re being, don’t you?

  Yes. She was being ridiculous. Unsurprisingly, that last thought reverberated through her head in her mother’s voice. Linda Shelby had always been critical of her eldest daughter, and learning Faith’s fiancé was no longer her fiancé had only stoked that flickering flame.

  To be fair, that
voice—her mother’s or not—was not wrong. Abundance Market wasn’t exactly Mordor. There were no gates, no mouth of Sauron, no leagues of orcs to battle her way through. All she had to do was park in the lot, walk through the automatic doors, and straight back to aisle fifteen.

  But when she pictured Michael at the service counter, or Cookie uncorking bottles for samples as the new wine girl, Faith’s insides seized. The potential of running into the woman who soiled Faith’s future—and her favorite rug from IKEA—was too great a risk.

  C’est la vie.

  With a wave of her hand, she swept the worries aside. She arranged three wineglasses near the bottles just as chattering outside drew her attention to her front door. Charlie and Sofie had arrived.

  Faith brushed her hands over her slim capris and simple blue T-shirt, ran a hand down her long ponytail, and pulled open the door.

  Her friends squealed when they saw her as if they hadn’t all just seen one another earlier this week for lunch. She had no idea how she would’ve gotten through the Michael/Cookie disaster without them.

  Charlie hustled in and wrapped her arms around Faith’s neck. “You look beautiful.”

  “Oh, thank you. So do you.” Charlie wore an orange dress—Charlie could almost always be found in a dress—with a floral pattern on it. Faith’s newly married friend could also almost always be found in flowers. Her hair, honeyed blond rather than Faith’s near-platinum, had recently been cut. The shoulder-length style suited her round face and huge, hazel eyes.

  “She always looks beautiful.” Sofie entered behind her with a grocery sack in hand. She winked as Faith relieved her of the handled bag. Sofie—Ms. “I Don’t Do Weddings” Martin—since she’d met and become engaged to one Donovan Pate, now did do weddings. Charlie’s nuptials had been her first climb back into the saddle, and soon, though she hadn’t announced a date, Sofie would marry her mansion-owner.

  It was times like these when loneliness threatened to overshadow Faith’s happiness. And, at times like these, she reminded herself that she was independent now and would do just fine on her own, thank you very much.

  Sofie unloaded the crab dip and pita chips she brought while Charlie searched the cabinets for another plate. Faith reached the serving platter on the top shelf and handed it over. She was taller than both of her friends, Sofie being the curvier of the two with a sizable backside her fiancé, Donny, couldn’t get enough of. Every chance he got, the man wrapped his hand around Sofie’s rear end and gave it a squeeze.

  “I have wine. I have food. I have Devil Dogs.” Faith gestured to the breakfast bar in invitation.

  “Be still my heart,” Charlie commented, eyes widening at the sight of the cakes. She used to claim not to be much of a “sweets person,” which was impossible to understand, but after her first Devil Dog, she reassessed her position on sugar.

  “I don’t know why you say you don’t like this as much as your old apartment,” Sofie said, taking a tour of the tiny living room. “This place is cute. Quaint.”

  “That’s just a nice way of saying small.” Yes, her new place was smaller than her old apartment on Bent Tree Avenue, but she did like it. Sofie was right. It was quaint, and quaint was fine. It would take some getting used to. She’d only been moved in for a week.

  “How much space do you need, really?” Charlie asked rhetorically as she walked into the living room and dropped her purse on the sofa.

  Charlie meant that supportively. At one point, right after finding Michael in the snares of Cookie Monster, Faith may have been sensitive to the fact that Charlie’s statement could imply Faith didn’t need that much space since she was now alone. She didn’t feel that way now. Sensitive, reading into every little thing. She knew her friends had her best interests in mind. Losing her ex was a blessing. One she wouldn’t have wished for at the time, but things had turned out exactly as they should have.

  Healing was a beautiful thing.

  The trio settled down to eat, filling their wineglasses, chewing on chicken wings, and eating the crab dip Sofie brought. Faith moaned in ecstasy as she took another scoop and chewed. “Oh man. I forgot how much I liked this stuff.”

  “Second best thing Abundance carries besides their potato salad,” Charlie agreed, scooping some dip onto a toasted pita.

  Faith couldn’t be happier as she watched Sofie chew merrily away. The last couple of years, Sofie had lamented the few extra pounds she’d gained. She was not fat, not by any stretch of the imagination, but since she’d been single, her body was a constant source of stress. Then Donny Pate, the man Sofie swore she hated, came back to town, invaded her space, and those issues had gradually dissipated.

  Evidently, copious amounts of sex with a man who thought Sofie walked on water could cure many body hang-ups. Faith couldn’t say she knew from experience. While she and Michael had sex when they were together, “copious” never described their love life. More like a light drizzle than a monsoon. Scheduled. And he had his own prejudice for the way a woman’s body should look. Faith hadn’t met his “requirements.” She felt her face pinch in disgust.

  “Abundance has the best anything-salad,” Sofie said, dipping another chip. “Have you had their Waldorf? To die for.”

  Faith slapped a smile on her face when she realized she’d been grousing over Michael, of all things.

  Her best friend, who had probably been reading her mind this entire evening, asked, “Still can’t go in there?” Sofie’s brows bowed into a sympathetic bend. “You know I can pick you up something whenever I go. We do work together. It’s not like it would be hard to get it to you.”

  “I don’t think about it, actually.” Minor lie. A lie of necessity. An affirmation, really.

  Her friends smiled, tight-lipped, letting her have the lie. This was why they were her friends. They knew when to intervene and shake sense into her, but they also knew when she needed her space.

  “I have three horror movies.” Faith held up the sleeves containing movies she’d rented at a kiosk outside the wine shop. Since the Cove’s local video rental closed, there wasn’t anywhere else to rent good movies unless she bought them. And horror movies were seasonal—not something she wanted in her permanent collection.

  “It is almost Halloween, and—” Out of nowhere, thunder shook the house, making them all gasp, then laugh. On the end of her laugh, Faith finished, “And it is our duty to watch some scary, twisted stuff.”

  “So the Devil Dogs are kind of in theme.” Charlie winked.

  Snatching a bottle by the neck, Faith spun the wine and showed off the label. “So is the wine.”

  “Blood Bath?” Sofie wrinkled her cute nose. “I assume that’s a red.”

  “With notes of mania.” Charlie nodded.

  Sofie grinned. “Finishes in the trunk of a car.”

  Faith laughed. “Come on, let’s see how many we can watch.”

  * * *

  An hour later, the three of them were crammed onto Faith’s sofa, each covered in their own afghan. Faith sat with her knees to her chest, arms wrapped around them. The Devil Dogs had been obliterated, and so had the Blood Bath.

  Sofie was at the far end of the sofa, lounging on one arm, a half smile on her face. Charlie was in the middle, properly alarmed at the madman stalking a group of teens at a lake, but her scared shrieks often dissolved into hearty laughter.

  Faith did not feel like laughing. She had underestimated her ability to handle this kind of a movie while living alone. Yes, it was campy. Yes, it was ridiculous. Yes, the blood was fake. But something about having a huge, un-killable man near a lake was freaking her right out.

  Not that she’d admit it. She wondered if she should open another bottle of wine, but worried if she drank more, she would end up awake in the middle of the night, heart pounding like a kettledrum, panicking over every subtle noise…

  That would not be good.

  If she still lived at Linda Shelby’s house she could dig a Valium out of her mother’s medicine cabinet
to help her sleep. As it stood, she’d just have to go it alone.

  The credits rolled and Charlie stretched. “One of my favorites.”

  “Really?” Sofie asked. “I prefer the Scream movies. Good, old-fashioned, terrifying fun.”

  “What’s next?” Charlie asked.

  Next? Faith gulped in fear. She’d been very, very brave when she’d picked movies at the kiosk. What with the sun shining and no danger of anything lurking around corners. Now that it was nighttime, she’d gone yellow.

  “Yeah, I’m ready for more wine and more horror,” Sofie said, rubbing her hands together. “Faith?”

  “Oh. Yeah. Bring it on.” She wiped her clammy hands on her blanket.

  Sofie narrowed one eye. “You sure?”

  Faith pulled back her shoulders and grinned. She was done being a fraidy cat about every freaking thing in her life. Tonight, she’d finally watch a Saw movie, and tomorrow, she’d finally set foot into Abundance Market. And, hell, may as well have more wine.

  “Heck yes! We can’t leave the bottle of Demon Seed unopened.” Pushing herself off the couch, she went to the kitchen and grabbed the corkscrew. Outside, the rain pounded and thunder rumbled in the far, far distance. The storm had blown through and the night was once again quiet.

  Charlie and Sofie started talking about shoes and Faith felt herself smile.

  She was with friends, in the safety of her sweet little apartment. There was nothing to fear. No madmen. No men at all, actually.

  Just the way she liked it.

  * * *

  The sky growled in protest and Connor jolted awake. Disoriented for a few seconds, he blinked at his surroundings.

  White walls. Wood floors. Bare windows.

  His apartment.

  He reached for the handle on the side of the recliner and dropped the footrest to sit up. He had a bed but rarely slept in it. More often than not, he left the TV on to keep him company, then fell asleep to whatever show he watched last.